


Blood Born

by SqutternutBosh



Series: Torchwood Season 3: What could have been [2]
Category: Torchwood
Genre: Alternate Season/Series 03, F/M, M/M, Mild Blood, Mild Gore
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-14
Updated: 2020-07-14
Packaged: 2021-03-05 06:35:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,274
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25269961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SqutternutBosh/pseuds/SqutternutBosh
Summary: Episode 2 of my Torchwood series 3 with added Owen and Tosh.People are going missing in the countryside. It's suspicious enough to drag team Torchwood back out there to investigate once again. After all, with rumours of vampires going around, they can't afford to miss out.
Relationships: Gwen Cooper/Rhys Williams, Jack Harkness/Ianto Jones
Series: Torchwood Season 3: What could have been [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1735756
Comments: 22
Kudos: 74





	Blood Born

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sorry there was a big gap between this episode and the last one! I do have every episode planned out but not as much time to write as I'd like so it'll be slow going. I hope you enjoy though :)

‘I can’t believe you’re dragging our sorry arses back out here again,’ Owen bitches as they unload the SUV.

Looking up at the country manor before them, a proud Gothic building overlooking sprawling grounds, its panelled windows lit warmly, Ianto struggles to see what he’s complaining about. It hadn’t taken much to persuade Jack they needed a hotel to use given how well their last camping trip to the Welsh countryside had gone.

‘What are you complaining about?’ Jack asks so none of the others have to. He pushes past Owen and grabs his bag, a military issue duffel stamped with ‘Harkness’ in capital letters. Ianto suspects the bag was born in around about the same year as his grandfather. ‘You’ll have a room to yourself, with a king bed, _and_ this place has a pool.’

‘With sauna and steam room,’ Ianto adds. He’d been feeling very optimistic when he booked this place but now he wonders what madness must have come over to him to think he’d have time to use any of the hotel’s facilities. If he was lucky they’d at least get to eat in the restaurant tonight.

Ianto slides his own bag out of the boot and slings the backpack containing his laptop over one shoulder. He’s stuck with his suit for travelling down today but has packed proper hiking clothes and waterproofs so he’s ready for whatever trawling through field and stream they’ll have to do on this case.

‘Hurry up,’ Gwen says, more to chivvy Owen on than anybody else as he’s still dragging his heels and muttering about how he hates the countryside even if he can’t smell it anymore. ‘If we get checked in quick now I might be able to squeeze in a dip in the pool before dinner.’

‘Sorry to burst your bubble, Gwen,’ Jack says as they make their way to the tall, arched double doors that lead into reception. ‘We’ve got case notes to review before play time.’

Gwen groans. ‘It’s not like anything’s changed since we last went over them yesterday, Jack.’

‘Actually,’ Tosh chips in, ‘I saw reports of another disappearance in the police feeds I was checking on the drive out here. I’ve only looked into it a little but it looks related.’

‘Good find, Tosh,’ Jack says. ‘Ianto, can you get us checked in please? The rest of you, quiet down until we’re somewhere less public. We’re on a corporate retreat, remember.’

‘Hahaha, spreadsheets,’ Owen says loudly as they enter reception. ‘Can’t get enough of them.’

The reception is large and open, a lot of the focus of the room is given over to the sweeping double storey staircase that steps down to meet the foyer, carpeted in plush red, its mahogany banisters shining. The banisters match the mantel of the large fireplace to the right of the stairs, a young fire crackling within it. Low, squishy armchairs are gathered beside the fireplace, twinned with small tables ready for after-dinner drinks. A middle-aged couple have taken up one set of these seats already, flicking through a newspaper each. 

Ianto ignores the face-off between Jack and Owen and heads over to the reception desk. The receptionist, a young woman, blonde hair swept back in a neat and corporate ponytail, smiles politely at him.

‘Good evening, sir. Are you checking in?’

‘Yes, please. Four rooms for Hub Enterprises.’

When Ianto returns to the group, Gwen, Owen and Tosh are all getting into the swing of pretending to be regular office drones here on a corporate retreat.

‘Ah yes, I really like the synergy of this place, good choice, Ianto,’ Gwen says. 

‘I’m glad,’ he says. ‘Come on, we’re all on the second floor.’

Ianto leads the way up the stairs, following the instructions the receptionist had given him. As they get to each of the doors of their rooms, Ianto hands the relevant key card to the assigned person.

‘Oooh,’ Gwen gushes as she walks into her room, instantly dropping her bag and flopping back onto the red and gold bedspread. The mattress bounces beneath her. ‘Not gonna lie, I love Rhys, but it’s nice to have a whole bed to myself once in a while.’

‘Don’t get too cosy there, Gwen,’ Jack reminds her from the doorway. ‘We’re reviewing the case notes in my room in ten.’

‘Room number?’

Jack looks to Ianto, who double-checks the remaining key card.

‘212,’ he says.

Ianto’s heart pounds as he slots the final key card into the lock. The green light blinks and it opens. He knows he’s about to get into a conversation he hasn’t quite prepared himself for and he hates past, optimistic Ianto for the bold decision he made while booking the rooms.

He’s worrying about nothing, he tells himself as he pushes the door open. Probably.

Jack steps in behind him and closes the door. Ianto crosses the room and drops his bag at the foot of the armchair by the window. He twitches the net curtain aside to reveal a wonderful view of the bins outside the kitchen lit by a spectacular sunset.

‘Four rooms,’ Jack says casually. He drops his own bag onto the bed, something Ianto hates because people also put their bags down on the dirty floor, for God’s sake.

Ianto’s ears are burning. He lets the curtain fall back in place and turns around. He clears his throat and looks at Jack.

‘I just thought it’d be… more economical.’

‘So this is about the Torchwood bank account then?’

Ianto plays with his left earlobe. He’d, somewhat stupidly, let a friend of his pierce it when they were fourteen and Ianto had spent the five years after that sporting a garish stud that his mother had hated with a passion. She always told him she knew when he was lying because he’d start fiddling with that damn earring.

He drops his hand, not wanting Jack to figure this tell out.

‘Something like that.’

Jack sighs and takes the few steps that are needed to close the distance between them in this small room. He puts his hands on Ianto’s forearms, his thumbs rubbing up and down.

‘You know if you’d booked five rooms, I’d just have shown up at your door in the middle of the night anyway, right?’ he says.

‘I’m glad to have saved you the trouble.’

Jack kisses him, moving one hand up to cup Ianto’s cheek. He pulls away after a few seconds, smiling.

‘Ianto Jones,’ he says, ‘the trouble would have been no trouble at all.’

*~*TW*~*

The others arrive ten minutes later.

‘Usually when I say meet in ten minutes it takes you lot at least fifteen minutes to be somewhere,’ Jack comments shrewdly.

‘You’re forgetting what’s at stake here, Jack,’ Gwen points out. ‘If we get this done quick, we get to use the spa facilities and then have a proper meal in a restaurant with tablecloths instead of reheated pizza on the mangy sofa.’

‘ _Lovingly_ reheated pizza,’ Ianto says. ‘I slave over that for at least two minutes.’

The room is cramped with all five of them in it plus Jack and Ianto’s bags. Ianto has already hung his clothes up in the wardrobe so they won’t get creased, whereas Jack’s more of a leave everything in the bag until you need it sort of guy, which he can tell is frustrating to Ianto.

Tosh, Gwen and Owen squeeze together at the end of the bed and Ianto perches on the windowsill, leaving Jack to stand and talk in the corner where he can awkwardly see himself in the mirror out of the corner of his eye. Ianto spots Jack glancing at himself in it and gives him a look communicated purely through the subtle movement of his eyebrows. It’s a small gesture but Jack knows Ianto’s using it to ask whether Jack’s really that vain. Jack ignores him and turns to the task at hand.

‘Before you all get changed into what I hope is delightfully skimpy swimwear – yes, Owen, even you – let’s recap what we already know and why we’re here. Tosh, you can then update us on what’s come up since we left Cardiff.’

Jack flips open one of the laptops they’ve brought with them. He sets it down on the dressing table and the others collectively lean in to see what’s happening on the small screen, which makes Jack feel far less commanding than he does when presenting on the big flat screen in the conference room.

A zoomed in satellite photo blinks into life on the screen.

‘That red pin there is where we are. The blue pins extending further out into the valley show the locations where people have recently gone missing. The yellow pins mark the positions in which some of these people have been found again. Anyone who has been found has been weak, unconscious, in need of a blood transfusion and, more importantly, unable to remember what has happened to them. The two black pins show us where these poor people haven’t been found in time – two dead.’

‘Jeremy Coles and Lottie Swift,’ Gwen says solemnly. Jack nods.

‘Exactly, they’re why we’re here – no more deaths. When we picked up the first instances of people going missing around here in the last few weeks, we weren’t too suspicious – the weather has been bad, these people were all hiking alone or in pairs, and most of them turned up.’

‘And memory loss could be put down to the physical or mental trauma or having been lost out here,’ Owen adds.

‘Plus, no Rift activity,’ says Tosh. ‘Nothing to immediately bring this to our attention.’

‘Right. But now, there have been too many incidents and, just because there’s no Rift activity around here, doesn’t mean something can’t have travelled out of Cardiff and made this place its home.’

‘God knows why,’ Owen says.

‘If I had to take a guess,’ Ianto chimes in, ‘I’d say they’ve come here for the easy prey. And the beautiful scenery.’

‘I dunno about you but all I could see out of my window were two pigeons shagging on a bin.’

‘Ah, nature.’

‘ _Back_ to the job at hand, please?’ Jack cuts over them. ‘Tosh, what’s the latest on the police feeds?’

‘Could be useful actually. A new victim re-appeared this afternoon, Emrys Jenkins, found out in the woods not far from here. I’ve got into the police file and it says he’s in the local hospital saying he was kidnapped.’

‘That’s more than any of the others could remember,’ Gwen says. ‘Does it say who he was kidnapped by?’

Tosh shakes her head. ‘There’s not much detail on it yet.’

‘There we are then, a witness,’ Jack says, then claps his hands together. ‘Gwen, you and I will go to the hospital and speak to Mr Jenkins tomorrow. Owen, Tosh, Ianto, while we do that, I’d like you to head out to investigate some of the areas people have been taken and found at, get some readings. That could help us narrow this down a bit.’

Jack feels Gwen’s eyes on his back as he leans over the laptop and minimises the screen.

‘Jack,’ she says, then pauses. He looks over his shoulder at her.

‘Yeah?’

‘Do you have any suspicions about who – or, or _what_ this could be that’s taking people?’

Jack turns around. He folds his arms and rests against the dressing table. Gwen, Owen and Tosh look up at him like a litter of curious puppies. He thinks that if he were to sway his hand out in front of them they’d follow its movement back and forth.

‘Too many possibilities right now,’ he says, almost entirely honestly even though he does have a rather specific suspicion. Just not one he wants to put out there until they have more information. ‘The weakness and memory loss, the need for blood… There are plenty of species out there that consume blood to survive or use it for sacrifices or even as a means of communication. We need more data.’

‘But if you had to take a guess?’ Gwen pushes.

‘I’d rather not.’

Gwen throws her hands up. ‘Fine, fine. We’ll go out and get the data, Mr Spock.’ She stands. ‘As we’re not doing that until tomorrow, can I go for a dip? I can hear the hot tub calling out to me.’

Jack smiles. ‘You’re dismissed.’

Gwen mock salutes him as Owen and Tosh also get to their feet.

‘I booked a table in the restaurant for eight,’ Ianto says. ‘See you all there?’

‘Oh good, watching you all eat for two hours…’ Owen mutters.

‘I’ve asked if they have any colouring books for you,’ Ianto replies. ‘Keep you busy while the grown ups are having their dinner.’

Owen flips him off and leaves the room behind Tosh and Gwen, the door closing with a snap behind him.

‘So,’ says Jack, crossing the room to put himself as much in Ianto’s space as he possibly can. ‘What do you want to do now? The hot tub or… me?’

*~*TW*~*

‘Where were you two?’ Gwen asks as Jack and Ianto join them in the restaurant, only a few minutes late. She pours wine from the open bottle into their glasses as they sit down. ‘I thought you were going to join us for some sauna time?’

‘Some of us actually have to prepare everything ready for when you lot go out tomorrow,’ Ianto says, sliding his napkin off the table, shaking it open and slipping it onto his lap.

Owen notes a tell-tale glisten in Ianto’s hair.

‘And you had to take a shower after doing all that _strenuous_ preparation, did you?’ he asks.

Ianto shoots him a glare and Owen snickers. If he’s not going to get to eat he’s got to find some way to keep himself entertained. He’s already had to tell the waitress he’s doing one of those fasting diets so he doesn’t need a menu.

‘How was the pool?’ Jack asks, side-stepping the direction Owen had been pushing the conversation in.

‘Lovely,’ Tosh says, beaming. Her hair still has a slight frizz to it from where she’s dried it on a high setting. ‘The sauna was just what I needed.’

‘Mmm-hmm,’ Gwen murmurs in agreement. ‘I can’t remember the last time I had a good relaxing swim.’

‘There was that time last month when the weevil knocked you into the Bay,’ Owen says.

‘I said a relaxing swim, Owen. How many shots did you give me after you fished me out of the Bay?’

‘It would’ve been a few less if you hadn’t insisted on swallowing so much of that bilge water.’

‘Such enlightening dinner conversation,’ Ianto tuts, not looking up from his menu.

Owen shrugs. ‘You can take the boy out of Cardiff…’

The waitress comes over and asks if they’re ready to order. Owen can tell this is a fancy place because she isn’t wearing a name badge. Also, the cutlery has some actual weight to it and the large chandelier hanging over the centre of the dining room appears to be a genuine antique, lit with candles rather than bulbs. He bets the food is actually going to be half-decent and laments that he can’t get a taste of it – if his stomach could rumble it would do so right now, in a melancholy fashion.

The others put their orders in and the waitress compliments them on their choices and suggests she bring over a bottle of white wine to better pair with the fish entrees. Oh good, Owen thinks, they’re all going to get trashed on posh wine too while I just sit here like a numpty.

‘Are you alright, Owen?’ Tosh asks from the opposite side of the circular table.

‘Huh, what?’

‘You were tapping your knife against the table the whole time we were ordering,’ she says, nodding her head at his hand. Owen glances down and notices that he is indeed restlessly banging his knife against the edge of the table.

‘Oh, sorry,’ he sets the knife down in its place again, pressing it into position as if it were the one at fault for the tapping.

‘You don’t have to stay here with us,’ Jack says, ‘if it’s too hard. Go out and make mischief elsewhere.’

Owen presses his lips together. Does he want to leave and spend the evening alone in his room with late night TV and a pay-per-view that can’t stimulate him in any way?

‘You’re alright, I’ll stay and make trouble here. I could drink a load of wine and show everyone that great vomiting trick from the police cell, remember that, Jack?’

‘Vividly,’ his boss replies, the look of disgust plain to see in the flaring of his nostrils.

‘I’ll save it for a special occasion. A big birthday or something. Or should I celebrate my death day now, is that how it works?’

No one says anything. Owen leans back in his chair and looks them all individually in the eye – both Gwen and Ianto look down and avoid his gaze, Jack holds it warningly, but Tosh smiles.

‘I’ve been thinking recently, Owen,’ she starts, focusing on him, ignoring the awkwardness, ‘we’ve got so much tech in the Hub, things I’ve barely scratched the surface of. I can’t promise anything but I don’t think we can rule out the possibility that something down there could help your… situation. We could bring back some sort of feeling or senses maybe? If it’s okay with Jack, of course.’

‘Toshiko, you absolutely have my permission,’ Jack says. ‘I can’t disagree with your hypothesis and you being the genius you are… why not? Totally possible.’

Tosh beams at him and then looks back to Owen, the flickering candlelight sparkling in her eyes. Owen clears his threat.

‘I knew there was a reason you’re my favourite, Tosh.’

The rest of the dinner passes by amicably, everyone but Jack and Owen getting tipsy and pink-faced with good food and wine. Owen is daring himself to hope after Tosh’s little announcement and is already cataloguing some of the alien tech that could potentially help in his mind. He’s also trying to figure out what kind of gift he could possibly get her that would thank her enough.

As the waitress puts their coffee and mints down to round off the evening, the rest of the dining room already emptied out, Jack leans conspiratorially over the table to get closer to her.

‘So, should we be scared?’ he asks her.

She straightens up and looks back at him warily. Ianto already seems to be preparing an ‘I’m so sorry about him’ response, which Owen thinks must be something he has to do regularly when out and about with Jack. They all feel the need to do it just when working with Jack, let alone on social occasions.

‘I’m sorry, sir?’

‘The people going missing around here,’ Jack says. ‘We’re supposed to be off on a team building hike tomorrow but the newspaper in my room says people have been going missing.’

The waitress hugs her serving tray to her body. She’s younger than Owen first realised, probably doing this job to get her through university. Her neat high ponytail and efficiency had her come across as older but now that she’s been asked something off-script the pretence melts away.

‘I… I don’t know much about it,’ she says. ‘There are a few rumours going around, particularly after that last guy was found. I’m training to be a midwife, up at the hospital, and there’s all sorts of gossip going around about what he was saying.’

‘Oh yeah?’ Jack’s tone is casual but Owen knows that look in his eye, zeroing in on a result that just needs to be worked through a little bit more.

‘I really shouldn’t say – it’s speculation and it’s silly. My tutor wouldn’t like me sharing hospital gossip either.’

‘Aw, c’mon, we’re all friends here.’

‘You don’t have to say anything you don’t want to,’ Gwen adds, one of her favourite techniques for coming across as empathetic and reasonable whilst really making people feel like they have to say something. Owen’s not quite sure Gwen realises it has this effect. ‘What’s your name, sweetheart?’

‘Millie,’ the waitress answers. She looks over her shoulder, checking they’re alone. ‘It’s obviously not true what they’re saying, I’ve no idea what could actually be happening, but there’s no way the rumours can be true.’

‘I’m on the edge of my seat here,’ Jack chuckles. ‘Go on, tell us. If it’s just some silly rumour I know we’ll be just fine out on our hike tomorrow.’

Millie sighs, checks over her shoulder once again and says, ‘Vampires. That’s what Mr Jenkins says took him – vampires.’ 

*~*TW*~*

‘So… vampires,’ Gwen says as Jack turns the SUV into the hospital car park. She drums her fingers on the armrest against the door and looks out the window, taking in the hospital, a typical drab 60s building that looks in need of a fresh coat of paint. The dirty white walls and exposed breezeblocks blend in against the overcast morning sky. Not the most comforting sight if you’re on your death bed.

‘Like I said last night, let’s not fixate on that,’ he replies. ‘Good to know what the locals are saying but if we go looking for “vampires” we could end up twisting whatever we come across to fit that pattern.’

‘Yes, yes, confirmation bias. Do you know how many bloody seminars I had to sit in on about that in the police?’

He doesn’t reply, busy spinning the wheel to concentrate on his reverse park into an empty space, an unusually polite manoeuvre from the man who usually just pulls up wherever suits and cites Torchwood as his permission to do so. The parking tickets that pile up on the Tourist Office desk seem to suggest that being Torchwood isn’t a good enough reason.

‘I’m not saying it is vampires because obviously we’re not assuming anything and we still have a lot of evidence to gather and corroborate but…’ she continues. ‘Is there even such a thing as vampires? Or some sort of alien that, I dunno, is the origin of that myth and all the stories?’

Jack puts the handbrake on and stares out of the front windscreen. Gwen studies his face, not saying anything, but making it clear she’s waiting for an answer. Jack had been very coy last night from the moment Millie the waitress had first mentioned vampires, laughing her off and thanking her for the story before fobbing them all off with the same reasons he was giving Gwen now. It was just a rumour from the locals and they needed more evidence before they went charging in – not that they had anywhere to go charging in just yet.

Gwen couldn’t help but think of the cannibalistic villagers they’d come across on their last team outing into the countryside. The words of their leader still haunted her at night, more terrifying than almost any of the aliens she had encountered. Most of the aliens at least were being true to their own natures, their own societal expectations – but the cannibals? Gwen hated to think there was some part of human nature, deep down, that could find joy in butchering and eating fellow humans.

Would vampires be all that different? All the stories she knew, and the quick bit of Googling she’d done before going to sleep last night, suggested that vampires had once been human. How much of this was still recognisably human varied depending on the myth, which left her feeling unprepared to deal with whatever they might come across.

‘There are a few aliens that could’ve had influence on those stories, sure,’ Jack finally says.

‘Have you ever come across them?’

He shrugs. ‘From time to time.’

‘What’re they like then? Are they human or part-human or just alien?’

‘Some alien, some humans who’ve had an unfortunate run in with an alien influence. That’s why I don’t want to jump to any conclusions here, Gwen – vampire could mean a lot of things. And that means we may need to have different ways to deal with them, so we need to get our stories straight to best prepare ourselves. Between us speaking to this victim and the others heading out to where some of the other victims were taken or found, we’ll get a pretty good picture.’

‘And then?’

‘If it _is_ vampires, then we get to do some slaying.’

*~*TW*~*

‘How much further, Tosh?’ Owen calls up the hill to where Tosh stands, PDA in hand, scrutinising it with a frown. The wind snatches his voice and carries it away so she can only just make out what he said.

‘The second victim was found on the other side of this hill, at the edge of the woodland,’ she shouts back. Sure of the direction they need to head in, she clips the PDA to the strap of her backpack.

Ianto is already at the top of the hill, looking down at them. Even though Tosh has herself dressed casually in walking trousers and an old pair of barely used hiking boots, paired with a black waterproof jacket, it’s always much more of a contrast to see Ianto out of his usual work attire. He’s pulled his hiking socks up high and tucked his jeans in to stop them getting splashed with mud, the hood of his green jacket up to protect his face from the drizzle that’s blowing in sideways. He tugs the straps of his backpack tight so the bag sits up high on his shoulders.

Owen, on the other hand, is wearing much the same as usual. No coat and totally inappropriate footwear. It’s a good job he doesn’t feel the cold but he has still found time to complain about the mud ruining his trainers. Tosh feels like he’s not doing it with his usual gusto though, as if the offer she had made last night is still keeping him in a good mood.

‘They’ve got police tape up along the trees there,’ Ianto says as Tosh summits the hill and joins him. He points down towards a patch of woodland that grows amongst this hill and the next, hiding the valley floor. Tosh pulls her own hood up and holds it there against the wind.

‘That must be the place. Come on.’

Owen makes some comment to Ianto about rolling down the hill to which Ianto replies that it’s a bit muddier than last time. Tosh decides she doesn’t want to ask for more on that story.

When they reach the bottom, Tosh gets her PDA back out to see if there are any residual Rift readings or traces. Nothing. She’s really not sure what Jack expects them to find out here that they couldn’t figure out with satellite imagery.

‘Lots of footprints,’ Ianto comments. ‘This was the guy that was found by the couple with their dog?’

‘Yeah. They were walking up along the hill we’ve just come down and the dog saw him. Came bounding down here barking apparently and that’s when the victim regained consciousness, with this slobbery St Bernard leaning over him.’

‘There are worse things to wake up to,’ Owen says.

‘I didn’t realise you were such a dog person, Owen,’ Tosh says.

Owen tucks his hands into his pockets and bobs his head from side-to-side. ‘That was less of a comment on my preference for dogs than it was an observation on some of my awakenings after big nights out at as a student.’

Tosh and Ianto team up in sending him a ‘you’re disgusting’ look.

‘Okay, so,’ Ianto continues, now crouching down and side-stepping around some nettles, heading into the treeline. ‘If the couple who found him came from up there, and then took him to safety that way,’ he gestures behind him, ‘then why are there so many footprints heading off into the woods from this spot?’

‘Police?’ Owen suggests, moving to crouch down beside Ianto. He runs his fingers over a footprint then inspects the mud that shows up on them. ‘Hang on…’

‘Those markings, they’re barefoot,’ Tosh says, pushing a branch aside to step further into the woods.

‘And human,’ Ianto adds. ‘Looks like a man’s size… 11 maybe?’

‘There are some smaller ones here too, look,’ Owen shuffles forward and points out a parallel set of footprints. ‘More likely a woman, probably too big to be a kid’s.’

Tosh follows the footprints deeper into the woods. She takes her hood down, the canopy of the trees protecting her from the rain. It smells of damp and moss. The trees here are old, their bark cracked and lined with lichens in yellow and blue-grey. Birds hop about overhead. It’s peaceful but Tosh’s heart beats fast as she pulls her torch out and shine sit along the ground. The hairs on the back of her neck stand up – she feels like someone is watching her but tells herself she’s just being paranoid. She believes in trusting her gut instinct but also in using logic to assess whatever evidence her gut presents to her.

‘Don’t go too far, Tosh, stick with us,’ Owen says. ‘We don’t know what we’re dealing with here.’

‘Hang on, I’m just checking.’

She swings the torchlight back and forth, squatting down to confirm her assumption. She flicks the torch back off and heads out to the edge of the woods to re-join Owen and Ianto.

‘Those footprints lead out to here and then back into the woods again, heading west. They’re fading a bit further in but someone’s definitely walked out to this spot where the victim was found and then headed back the same way.’

‘Dumping the body,’ says Ianto.

‘Exactly.’

‘Do you think we could follow the tracks further in, see if there’s some kind of nest or lair?’

‘Maybe whatever has been doing this doesn’t need a nest or lair…’

She looks between the two men, knowing that they’re all thinking back to the same thing, to the last time they ventured out into the wilds expecting aliens only to comes across a human evil.

‘If it is vampires like that waitress said, I believe we’d be looking for a coven,’ Owen says after a moment.

‘Actually, I think that’s witches,’ Ianto tells him.

‘Maybe the vampires and witches all live in one big happy coven.’

Tosh checks her watch. Jack and Gwen should be coming back this way in the SUV to pick them up again soon.

‘I’ll mark this spot on my PDA. Let’s see what Jack and Gwen have found out and then we can come back later,’ she says.

A sudden gust whips through the trees, the branches shiver and dance upwards as one. Rain splashes onto Tosh’s cheeks as she turns her head to look back into the darkness of the trees.

‘I’d definitely prefer to come back here knowing what we’re going to face,’ she adds.

*~*TW*~*

The nurse seems sceptical of Jack’s Torchwood ID when Jack shows it to her, claiming he’s from a special branch of the police and needs to see Mr Jenkins.

‘I’ve been a nurse in this hospital for twenty years and I’ve never heard of you,’ she says, screwing her nose up as she examines the credentials.

‘That means we’re doing our job right,’ Jack tells her, tucking the ID back into his inside pocket.

The nurse, in purple Crocs and creased scrubs, frowns and looks from Jack to Gwen. Jack’s not used to his dazzling smile and bravado being put under a microscope, it usually works so well, getting him wherever he needs to go even if he does piss someone off while doing it. He shifts his feet and puts his hands on his hips.

‘I’m sure you’re a busy woman, we really won’t be a bother, we just need to ask Mr Jenkins a few questions.’

The nurse makes a noise in her throat that, if Jack had to try and transcribe it, would come out as ‘harumph’.

‘He’s in room 11 at the end of the hall. Don’t go waking him if he’s asleep mind! You’ll have to come back later, the man needs his rest.’

‘Thank you so much,’ Jack says drily.

‘I swear, the word Torchwood loses all meaning as soon as you get more than ten miles outside of the big city,’ he says to Gwen as they make their way down the corridor towards room 11.

‘On the plus side, no one is pissed off the moment you say you’re from Torchwood. The rants I’ve heard from some of the local plod when we show up and take over.’ She grimaces.

‘They complain but there’s no way they’d want to be doing what we do.’

Having reached their destination, Jack pushes the door to the room open and waves Gwen in ahead of him.

The man on the bed inside is ashen, purple ringing his under eyes and visible green mottles of bruising up the arms he rests over the starchy hospital sheets. A clear tube runs from the crease of his elbow up to a drip bag of blood, nearly empty. His face is turned away from the door, staring out of the window which is so high up in the wall that all he can see is the concrete slab of sky above. Fat droplets of rain hit the window pane like stones then slink down the glass.

He turns to face them and Jack can better assess him – late twenties, broad nose, eyes set a little bit too far apart so his overall appearance leans towards the amphibious.

‘Do I know you?’ he asks. His voice cracks as if he hasn’t yet spoken today.

Gwen shuffles around to the other side of his bed. There’s a chair there, she plops herself down in it and looks at the man. Jack steps closer to the bed too – there’s no chair so he remains standing, but tries to relax his stance so he’s not imposing. He gives a brief smile.

‘We’re here to help,’ he says.

‘We’re from a special branch of the police. I’m Gwen Cooper and this is my boss, Jack. We specialise in cases like yours, Mr Jenkins,’ Gwen adds. She folds one leg over the other and leans towards him. ‘We just have a few questions.’

‘I already spoke to the police,’ Mr Jenkins says, still eyeing them.

‘Like I said, we’re specialists. We might find something they missed,’ Gwen says.

‘They didn’t believe me anyway, no one does.’

‘Whatever it is you tell us, Mr Jenkins, I promise we’re very open-minded.’

‘Emrys,’ he says, clearing his throat. He pushes himself up so he can reach over to the nightstand for the water jug but he struggles to reach it. Gwen reaches over and fills his plastic cup for him. He takes a few greedy gulps. ‘Please, call me Emrys.’

Jack knows he’s about to butcher the pronunciation of Emrys’s name (he gets enough mockery from Ianto at times for the way he pronounces his name) but he goes for it anyway, taking a step closer to the bed as he does so.

‘Emrys, what can you tell us about who took you?’

Emrys looks down into his empty cup.

‘They were just… regular people. Or so I thought. I’d got lost, pretty dumb, I’ve gone out hiking around here for years, but my GPS was playing up and it was getting dark so I went wrong somewhere. I was down by the woods and this couple comes up to me. They’ve got an OS map and they say they could tell I looked lost and did I need to see their map, so I say yes please. I was looking down at the map and then suddenly one of them smacks me on the back of the head. I blacked out.’

Jack perches on the end of Emrys’s bed. So far, so familiar.

‘But you were conscious again before you were found out in the woods a few days later?’ he asks.

Emrys shakes his head as if trying to clear water from his ears.

‘Sort of? I was in and out but I was definitely in some sort of cave. It was cold and wet – slimy wet, like with drips from stalactites or stalagmites or whichever way round they are.’

‘And the people?’ Gwen asks.

‘More of them, like a dozen or so maybe. I figured out though, they weren’t people.’

‘What were they, Emrys? You can tell us, we won’t laugh or judge.’

The patient looks between Jack and Gwen. Jack can tell he’s still assessing them and their likelihood to believe him even though he’s so far into his story already, so convinced of the fact that what he has experienced isn’t human.

He tugs at the tube on his arm, the last rivulets of blood flowing through it.

‘Vampires,’ he says.

Gwen looks to Jack, wanting his lead on what to ask next.

‘What makes you say that? Is that what they called themselves, did they use that word?’ she asks.

‘They didn’t have to. What else do you call something that’s been drinking your blood?’

Emrys tugs at the neck of his hospital gown, showing bandages across his collarbone.

‘They didn’t go from the neck, not like in the films. They did this one first of all, like to get an initial taste or something. They made deeper cuts in different places, I’ve got more bandages on my thighs and stomach.’

‘What makes you say they drank it then? If you just have these cuts?’

‘I saw them!’ he says, thumping his hands down on the bed. ‘They would make the cuts and drain the blood out into bowls. One time I came to and saw them drinking from the bowls and they hit me round the head again.’

Jack puts his larger hand down on Emrys’s on the covers, just to calm him.

‘I believe you. I just need to make sure we’ve got all the information we need here.’

‘How did you get away, Emrys?’ Gwen asks.

‘I didn’t. They gave me something to drink, just some water, and said I wouldn’t remember anything. I passed out and they took me back to where I was when I’d been lost. I was too weak to move myself from there when I woke up again, like my limbs just were completely drained. The next thing I know that dog was licking me on the neck and I was being airlifted here. I remember though – they said I wouldn’t, but I remember.’

Jack looks over to Gwen, knowing they’re thinking the same thing – who else has got hold of a way to make people forget when they drink it?

Jack gets back to his feet.

‘And that’s all you know?’

‘Pretty much, yeah.’

‘You didn’t get a good look at any of them?’

‘Not really. It was dark mostly and I’m no good with faces. Seemed like one guy was in charge though, he did most of the talking and… and cutting.’

‘And what was he like? This guy in charge?’

‘I didn’t get a good look at him but he could’ve been about my age, I suppose. Local boy, going by the accent.’

Jack knows all he needs to know, the suspicions he hadn’t wanted to share with Gwen now confirmed. He’s now sure of the who, but the why is more hazy. He checks his watch and catches Gwen’s eye – time to go.

Gwen refills Emrys’s cup and hands it back to him before she too gets up.

‘You believe me, right?’ Emrys says quietly, taking the cup in both hands.

‘One hundred percent,’ Jack tells him. ‘And we’re going to get it sorted.’

He nods at Emrys and leaves the room, Gwen at his heels with a quick, ‘Thanks for your time.’

*~*TW*~*

For this meeting, Ianto has booked out one of the hotel’s conference rooms rather than have them all crowd in one of their rooms. They sit around a long, oval table – a familiar pattern but much brighter than their meetings at the Hub given this room has windows that look out onto the golf course. Someone’s left a used flipchart in the corner of the room, the words ‘vertical integration’ written on the open page in stark capital letters.

Ianto takes a sip of the coffee the hotel has provided and winces. The hotel has also provided them with two plates of biscuits, one of which Jack seems to have claimed for himself. Gwen watches him make his way through a third bourbon, chocolate crumbs sticking to his lips. Jack’s open-mouthed chewing would normally put her off her food but right now she’s ravenous and didn’t realise how much she’d been craving a ginger nut until the spicy crunch of the biscuit breaks over her tongue. Delicious.

‘We’ve concluded it is vampires then?’ Owen asks, tapping his Gregynnog Court branded pen on an equally branded up notepad.

Jack swallows and reaches for a fourth biscuit.

‘Not vampires technically, but as good as,’ he says. ‘They’re sanguinites. It’s actually a type of alien parasite that enters the human body and then requires more human blood to feed on to stay strong. It’s a symbiotic relationship – the sanguinite drives the human it lives within to hunger for and feed on blood, preying on other humans, and in return it keeps the human alive a lot longer than they would otherwise have lived for.’

‘Emrys said they didn’t bite him, they sort of… bled him,’ Gwen tells the others.

‘That’s what tipped me off – plenty of blood drinking species would have just got straight down to it, big old bite to the jugular or another major artery. Sanguinites though, they’re more careful. Bleed the victims, make them last longer. Keep them alive and integrate into society.’

‘Does any other part of vampire folklore fit the sanguinite profile? Besides what’s for dinner?’ Ianto asks.

‘No sunlight,’ Jack says through a mouthful of digestive so it sounds like he’s saying ‘spfflide’. ‘They can get away with being out in dusk and dawn but the stronger UV rays totally weaken them. Some people think it disrupts the bond between the parasite and the host.’

‘That matches with the disappearances, actually,’ Tosh says. ‘Some of the data is a bit hazy as people can’t remember so the timelines aren’t all clear, but it seems like the people who were taken were snatched away not long before or after the sun rose or set.’

Gwen helps herself to another ginger nut and dips it in her tea. Having seen Ianto’s face when he’d taken a sip of the coffee, she’d decided tea was the better option.

‘And the memory loss?’ Owen asks. ‘Have they got some sort of mind-wiping powers?’

Jack shakes his head. ‘No.’

‘Emrys said they gave him something to drink and told him it would make him forget,’ Gwen adds. ‘Only, it doesn’t seem to have worked on him. Sounded a lot like Retcon.’

She watches Jack, waiting for his reaction to her words. He stands, wiping the crumbs off his lap before going to stand at the window, looking out at the brightly-dressed golfers cowering under their big umbrellas.

‘That’s just fantastic,’ Owen comments. ‘What? Have they bloody stolen it from us?’

Jack doesn’t say anything. Gwen follows his eyeline and sees what he’s looking at – a rotund older man hacking away at his ball in a bunker, failing miserably to get it out of the sand.

‘Do you know who it is, Jack? Have you met these sanguinites before?’ she asks.

Jack sighs and turns to face them, arms folded.

‘One of them, yes. David. He was infected by a sanguinite parasite back in the 70s and Torchwood helped him – after I persuaded them not to shoot. A sanguinite with a food source shouldn’t be dangerous, so we set him up with access to blood, an old contact at the hospital who could slip him a few bags here and there.’

‘You think this is him?’ Tosh asks.

‘I really hoped it wasn’t, that’s why I tried to fight off the vampire conclusion. Emrys’s description though… it definitely sounds like David.’

‘But that’s just one guy, Emrys said there were a dozen of them,’ Gwen points out.

‘I always thought our deal with David was good – I rarely heard from him, checked in once in a while and he seemed fine. He owned a bar for a while, decent job to have if you can’t go out in the daylight. This though… It sounds like he’s been making more sanguinites.’

‘I can see that,’ Tosh says. ‘Living life that way, it must get lonely. Maybe he wanted company?’

‘How would he make another sanguinite?’ Owen asks. ‘Should we be worried about any of the people who’ve been found?’

Jack shakes his head. ‘There’d be signs by now. To make another sanguinite, David would have to inject someone with his blood, infecting them with the sanguinite parasite.’

‘How dangerous do you think he is?’ Ianto asks. ‘What’s made him suddenly go after people and forget about his old agreement?’

Jack returns to his seat. ‘That’s the bit I don’t know. Whatever his reasons, we need to talk him back round. People have already died, we need to stop him.’

‘And if he doesn’t want to stop? He’s still mostly human, isn’t he?’ Gwen asks.

Jack shrugs. ‘What makes a human, human? Maybe he’s not anymore, maybe he’s… something else. Something we have to put a stop to if he won’t listen to reason.’

‘What’s our next move then?’ Owen asks, looking up from his doodle of a cartoon Dracula. ‘How do we find the bugger? We must have been pretty close earlier but I bet there’s all sorts of hidey-holes in those mountains.’

Jack rests his elbows on the table and arches his fingers together. ‘We go vampire fishing. Who fancies being bait?’

*~*TW*~*

When it came down to it, there were only really two candidates available to attract the sanguinites. Jack didn’t want to put himself where David might see him in case he got suspicious, undead Owen wasn’t a delicious, blood-filled prospect, and Tosh was still in the final stages of recovering from her gunshot wound.

Ianto was thrilled to find himself gearing up for hiking again in his and Jack’s room, now with the bonus potential of being kidnapped by an alien vampire. Scratch that – it wasn’t a potential kidnapping he was in for, it was a very deliberate one.

He asks Tosh to triple-check the five trackers that have been set up on him so he can be really sure the others will find him and Gwen after they’re taken. They’ve decided they won’t be wearing their bluetooths as they’d be too visible once the sanguinites get up close and personal and will give the game away.

‘And these will still get picked up if we’re in a cave?’ Gwen asks, as Tosh runs the scanner over her trackers. ‘Emrys mentioned a cave.’

‘Gwen, these things would still transmit to me from the deepest mine in Australia, they’re that good,’ Tosh says.

‘They’re pretty indestructible too,’ Jack says from his perch in the window. He winks. ‘I don’t send my pretties out to get kidnapped and not get found.’

Ianto unzips his waterproof slightly, overheating in the room. It’s already growing dark outside and the rain has kept up all day.

‘Now,’ Jack says, pushing himself up to his full height. ‘What’s your cover story again?’

‘We’re Mr and Mrs Davies out for a romantic and stupid evening hike. We haven’t got any weapons and we definitely won’t be fighting off any alien vampires if they decide to take us home for dinner,’ Ianto intones, to which Jack smirks.

He does trust Jack to find them, he really does – he just hopes he’s quicker than the time they were taken by the cannibals. He still has the occasional nightmare that wakes him up with a jolt, the feel of the rusted metal against his throat as if the hatchet was still held there.

Ianto feels Gwen looking at him out of the corner of her eye.

He frowns. ‘What?’

‘It’s just… do we have to be married in our cover story? You look so young out of your suit, Ianto, I feel like a cradle robber.’

Owen snickers from his position, prostrate and out of the way on the bed, and Ianto knows what he’s going to say.

‘Imagine how Jack feels.’

Jack shoots him a look and Owen holds his hands up, palms facing out.

‘You’re only five years older than me,’ Ianto points out.

‘Sorry, sweetheart,’ Gwen says, the term of endearment making Ianto feel even younger than he actually was. ‘I’ve just always preferred older men.’

Jack claps his hands together. ‘Be brother and sister, be bff, whatever. Just get your story straight before you get out there.’

‘I always wanted a brother,’ Gwen says.

‘Come on then, sister, let’s go for a stupid moonlit hike and find some vampires,’ Ianto says. He offers his arm out to Gwen to take – something he would never do with his actual sister, who, Ianto suspects, would get on well with Gwen – and leads her from the room.

*~*TW*~*

‘You got everything you need?’ Jack asks Ianto as they get out of the SUV a mile away from the woodland.

Ianto pats the OS map in his front pocket and adjusts his backpack on his shoulders.

‘Yep,’ he says, popping the p – partly because it’s fun, partly because he knows Jack likes it.

He can hear Tosh and Owen checking Gwen over on the other side of the SUV. Jack is studying his face closely and Ianto can feel this weird energy between them that he sometimes feels in moments like this, like Jack wants to say or do more but they’re at work and he’s the boss, so he can’t. Not that Jack is necessarily more open outside of work. He’s tactile and affectionate, sure, but emotions and talking? Neither of them go in much for that.

Ianto quirks an eyebrow up at Jack, not wanting to linger in their strange limbo. Either kiss me or just send me on my way like any of the others, he thinks.

Jack takes Ianto’s hand, the one wrapped around his backpack strap, and uses it to pull Ianto closer to him.

‘Just be careful, alright? Play along, get some information, and we’ll be there before they even get a taste of you.’

‘We all know that’s your job,’ Ianto teases.

Jack grins and pushes him away gently. He steps back and looks over the roof of the SUV to the top of Gwen’s head.

‘You ready to go, Mrs Cooper?’

*~*TW*~*

Gwen has never been much of a hiker. Never really much of an outdoorsy person at all, really. Ianto though, ambling along by her side, seems absolutely thrilled to have a map in his hands, twisting it round and studying it from different angles. They’re not setting much of a pace, walking slowly towards the woodland where Emrys was found in the hopes that the sanguinites spot them and pick them up. Gwen hopes they come soon, she doesn’t fancy doing much uphill walking.

She stops suddenly as she realises the full extent of what she’s wishing for. Ianto walks a few more paces before realising she’s no longer with him. He turns around to her.

‘Gwen?’

‘I’ve just realised – we’re supposed to let them hit us over head, aren’t we?’ she says. ‘Not put up a fight or anything, just let them bonk us on the head and take us?’

Ianto grimaces and rubs the back of his own head – subconsciously, Gwen suspects.

‘Owen’s promised us the good painkillers,’ he says.

Gwen huffs and throws her hands up. ‘Great, bloody _wonderful_.’

‘Cheer up, sis,’ Ianto says, walking back over to her. ‘Would it cheer you up to have a go of the map?’

Gwen rolls her eyes.

‘That’s ok, I wouldn’t want to take away any of your fun.’

They continue pushing on uphill, the sun now nearly set behind them. It’s eerily quiet out here, just the wind blowing and the rain pitter-pattering as it lands on their coats.

As they round the hill, Gwen spots a torchlight not far away. It bobs with the rhythm of someone walking, then stills and seems to hone in on them. She nudges Ianto with her elbow.

‘I see it,’ he whispers.

‘Could be anyone though.’

‘Either way,’ he says, clearing his throat. ‘Brace for impact.’

*~*TW*~*

In the back seat of the SUV, still parked up in the lay-by, Tosh closely scrutinises her laptop. Her software is feeding details of Gwen and Ianto’s locations and vitals to her, all pulsing at a reassuringly steady rate for now.

Jack twists round from the driver’s seat to ask her,

‘Anything?’

‘Nothing yet,’ she confirms. ‘They’re just making their way up the hill towards the woods. Vitals all good, heart rate in line with a healthy person walking uphill.’

‘That reminds me,’ Owen says from the passenger seat. ‘You lot are due your physicals. Overdue, really. I need to update your baseline stats and check you all over.’

Tosh groans. ‘Haven’t you been prodding at me enough recently? You must have taken my blood pressure twenty times.’

‘Right, yeah, you can be excused.’

‘And me?’ Jack asks.

‘I know I don’t technically need to check in on your health, Jack, but it’s good to gather the data. What if something suddenly changes and you’re not immortal anymore? Or maybe you are ageing at a very slow rate? I should do my job and keep an eye on that. Someone doing my job in a thousand years might find the notes useful when you go to them complaining because you found a grey hair.’

‘Why do you lot all think I’m that vain?’ Jack huffs. ‘I happen to be a big fan of the silver fox look.’

Tosh stares out of the window into the night. It’s almost fully dark now, the sky bruised purple overhead. The rain stopped a few hours ago but the lush sweep of grass that quivers in the wind looks all the brighter for the drink its had today. Tosh feels suddenly glad for this break outside of the city – she never feels like the air in Cardiff is particularly heavy or polluted but coming out here has shown her the difference.

Cardiff is still better than London and Osaka though. Tosh has started a countdown recently, towards her fifth anniversary with Torchwood. She’ll be fully free to go wherever she wants then, to see her mother in person and hug her and apologise to her for everything. She hopes she’ll understand.

She’s never felt resentment to Jack for her situation. He pulled her out of hell and opened the universe up to her – having to wait a few years for complete freedom just to convince UNIT she’s not a threat hasn’t been that big a price to pay. It’s not like she has the time to go on holiday anyway. God knows how the team would cope without her, she’d probably come back to corrupted software and a malware attack. She’s told Gwen and Owen about links in spam emails so many times and yet they both still continue to open emails about celebrity sex tapes.

‘I’ve been thinking about your offer, Tosh,’ Owen says. Tosh blinks and re-focuses on the task at hand, double-checking the laptop screen – all good. It’ll beep when anything irregular happens anyway. Owen is leaning round in his seat to look at her.

‘My offer?’ she asks.

‘To help me feel stuff or taste stuff or just whatever we can do really. Circulation and sensation are high on my list, much as I miss a beer.’

‘What were you thinking about it?’

‘Where we should start. I think we should re-run some of the tests Martha initially did with me and compare. I’ve kept an eye on certain things I was worried about, muscle atrophy and that, but there’s more we could do. Then we should have a good dig around in the archives.’

‘Don’t do that without Ianto’s permission,’ Jack warns, not looking away from his focus point out of the front windscreen, ready to drive at any moment.

‘We’ll probably need his help,’ Owen says. ‘He knows what’s down there better than anyone, he might know of something that could help.’

Tosh smiles. ‘He already sent me a list.’

‘Anything with potential?’

‘Maybe – some things might be temporary or would require you to keep the device on you, but that doesn’t mean we can’t take them apart, see how they work and extrapolate out from there. Create something new.’

Owen grins at Tosh and her heart does a little inescapable flutter.

‘I have 100 percent faith in you, Tosh,’ he says. She beams back, glad that her own heart rate isn’t being monitored right now.

She’s so excited to help Owen, but Tosh can’t lie to herself, she’s also very excited about the project and the discoveries they could make along the way. She’s tinkered with plenty of their alien finds in the past but this, with a specific purpose, could help her unravel all sorts of things.

‘That reminds me, Jack, I’ve pretty much finished the time lock pro-,’ she’s cut off as her laptop starts beeping loudly. Jack starts the engine.

‘Where are we going?’ he asks.

Tosh dims the volume. ‘That’s just their heart rates peaking and… they seem to have come to a standstill, not too far from where Mr Jenkins was found.’

‘So, that way?’ Jack asks, pointing diagonally, right towards the hill.

‘We’re going to need to wait a little while, see where they take them,’ Tosh reminds him.

‘I know,’ he says. ‘Just preparing for a little off-roading.’

Tosh and Owen race to put their seatbelts on as Jack revs the engine.

*~*TW*~*

Even before she opens her eyes as she comes to, Gwen can smell that she’s lying on the ground in a cave. It’s damp and earthy, with a wet cold that clings to her. She feels the scratch of rope at her wrists and around her ankles, both tied in front of her.

She opens her eyes, her head banging. She hopes the others get here soon, not just to rescue them but also so Owen can inject her with some of his special strength painkillers and she can pretend she didn’t let someone hit her over the head when she could very well have defended herself.

She manages to push herself into a sitting position. It’s dingy in the cave but not completely dark. They seem to be in a chamber area, the ceiling high above them, drafts from tunnels leading out in several directions blowing through. At the centre of the space, a group of about 10 people are crowded around, some with head torches, others with handheld lights. They’re talking but Gwen can’t make out what they’re saying as their words are muttered.

‘Gwen?’

A whisper to her right. Ianto is a few metres away from her, similarly tied up. She can just about see his face in the flickering light that bounces from the torches. A sticky trickle of blood has dried at his temple.

‘Are you alright?’ he asks.

‘Just the expected,’ she says. ‘You?’

‘On the scale of all the times I’ve been knocked out, this one ranks pretty low.’

‘Have you been awake long? Picked up any of what they’re saying?’

He shakes his head.

‘Only a bit longer than you. Can’t hear them.’

Gwen is about to ask if Ianto has any idea how long they’ve been out but the group at the centre of the cave suddenly realises that they’re conscious and turns to them. With more of them facing her, Gwen can see that they’re nothing too special, just normal looking people who look like they’ve been out in the woods for a few days – a bit muddy and wan, a few tears in their hiking gear, but they wouldn’t look too out of place if you came across them walking around here.

She spots the man and woman who had found her and Ianto. They’d come marching right up to them saying they’d seen the map in their hands and asking them if they needed any help as it was getting dark and they knew the area well. Neither she nor Ianto had had a moment to respond before someone else had come up behind them and hit them over the head.

‘Our new visitors are awake at last,’ says a man with a head torch, stepping forward out of the group. He walks towards Gwen and Ianto. Gwen has to squint to make out his face as his head torch is shining right in her eyes.

‘Who are you?’ she asks.

‘Who do you think?’ he says, stopping not far from her.

‘I don’t know, some sort of cult?’

He laughs and the others copy.

Gwen knows she’s meant to be playing the part of unknowing innocent captured by an alien being but she can’t bring herself to show these people too much fear. She can feel adrenalin pounding through her in time with her pulse, beating away, urging her to fight back.

‘You’re creeping me out,’ she says. ‘Why don’t you just let me and my brother go?’

‘We won’t say anything,’ Ianto adds, playing his part.

The man tilts his head. Some of the others break away from the group and come to stand beside him – with their additional light, Gwen can see more of the apparent leader’s face. He’s unshaven and stubbly, narrow chin, big brown eyes fixed on hers, red-stained lips over several chipped teeth. Gwen assumes this must be David, the man Jack had spoken of.

‘What do you want from us?’ Gwen asks. ‘We haven’t got any money on us.’

‘Money is immaterial,’ he says. He turns to his lackeys. ‘Shall I show them what we want?’

They nod and encourage him. Gwen shifts back towards the cave wall slightly, not knowing where he’s going to take this.

He falls down beside them and shuffles up to Ianto on his knees. He grabs Ianto’s tied wrists in his hands and forces them downwards, so Ianto has no choice but to lean towards him even though he struggles, and then he licks the blood drying on Ianto’s face. Gwen tries not to gag.

‘O negative, a bit sweet and sticky. I’d prefer it even fresher.’

Ianto brings his fists up suddenly and manages to throw David off him, sending him sprawling backwards. David laughs and slaps the floor.

‘Oh _yes_ ,’ he says. ‘Get your pulse up, that only makes it all the more delicious!’

He gets to his feet and barks, ‘Get the tools. Let’s bleed them.’

As they walk away, Ianto rolls over to Gwen.

‘There’s no way someone with his build should be that strong,’ he says to her. ‘I only managed to tip him then because he was off balance but when he grabbed my wrists I couldn’t fight back at all.’

‘Must be something to do with the sanguinite,’ Gwen speculates. ‘You ok?’

‘Mostly just grossed out. I prefer not to be licked by strange men.’

Gwen shivers. ‘I don’t fancy that either. How much trouble do you think we’ll get in with Jack if we do a bit of fighting back?’

‘Gwen, we’re tied up.’

‘I’ve seen you get yourself out of ropes before.’

‘I’ve had practice.’

Gwen rolls her eyes. ‘Don’t wanna know. Can you manage it?’

He shakes his head. ‘I tried. These knots are actually decent.’

Gwen glances over at the group. She sees the glint of a knife in the torchlight.

‘Surely the others will get here soon?’ she says.

‘You know Jack, he loves a dramatic entrance, something with a bit of flare.’

David walks back over to them, knife in hand. He holds it by the end of the handle, letting it dangle and swing like a pendulum.

‘Who wants to go first?’ he asks.

‘Bleed the woman, David,’ the woman who had played a hand in Gwen and Ianto’s capture says. She shifts eagerly from foot to foot. ‘I don’t know what it is but we found her, she smelt so… mouth-watering.’

‘Did she? Let me see.’

David grabs a fistful of Gwen’s hair and she cries out as he pulls her towards him. He crouches down and inhales deeply through his nostrils. He lets her go and Ianto twists so she falls back into him rather than onto the hard ground.

‘Ah,’ he says, grinning. ‘I know exactly why that is. She’s pregnant.’

Even in all the madness, the world around Gwen stops spinning as she hears those words. Ianto looks down at her, eyes wide.

‘What? No, I’m not,’ she says.

‘No doubt about it, I can always smell it,’ David says. He taps the flat of the knife against his cheek. ‘You’re in for a treat, boys and girls. The blood of a pregnant woman is a high like no other.’

‘Leave her alone!’ Ianto shouts as David and another of his followers grabs Gwen under the armpits and hoists her to her feet. She struggles against them but Ianto was right, their grip is ridiculously strong and she can barely twist herself with it.

‘I’d do as he suggests,’ a familiar voice echoes across the cave.

Jack, his greatcoat wrapped closely about him, stands at the entrance of one of the tunnels flanked by Tosh and Owen. Tosh and Owen have their guns out and trained on the group, but Jack is calmly unarmed.

‘Captain Jack,’ David says, taking him in. Gwen feels his body tense up behind her. ‘I didn’t think you’d spoil our fun if I left the Cardiff postcode.’

‘And I didn’t think you’d start kidnapping and killing people, David. I thought we had an arrangement.’

David spits and it lands near Gwen’s foot.

‘That arrangement was dirt. You never told me how strong I could be if I drank straight from the source. Kept that conveniently quiet.’

‘What can I say? Must have slipped my mind.’

‘I figured it out and now I’m stronger than you could ever be. All of us here are.’

‘Nice little crew you’ve built for yourself. What did he promise you?’ Jack addresses the room at large, looking between them. ‘Immortality? Strength? None of that is what it’s cracked up to be, I can promise you.’

‘No, you’d rather just keep that all for yourself, wouldn’t you? You haven’t aged a day since Torchwood first found me.’

Jack shrugs. ‘You think you know me so well.’

‘I’ve had time to learn a few things.’

‘Then maybe you should have remembered that I have a flare for the dramatic.’

With that, Jack throws his coat open and Gwen is blinded by the burst of light that floods the cave. David and the other vampire relinquish their hold on Gwen as they drop to the ground, covering their eyes and whimpering.

Gwen can’t see him, but she hears Owen rush up to her and pick her up. He grabs the knife David has dropped and slices through the rope at her wrists and ankles.

‘Come on, Gwen, let’s go,’ he says, helping her up.

Gwen grabs his arm and lets him support her out as she struggles to orient herself in the blinding whiteness of the UV strip lights strapped to Jack’s chest, lighting him up like their very own avenging angel.

‘Go on, go, get a head start,’ Jack says as they pass him. ‘You both ok?’

‘We’ll live,’ Ianto says, just behind her with Tosh. ‘And that existence will be far more enjoyable once Owen has given us both a portion of his happy pills.’

‘Thirty seconds,’ Jack says. ‘Start running, I’ll catch up. If any of them give chase, we’ll deal with them. We’ll try and reason with the rest.’

Owen takes his arm back from Gwen and they start running. Only Owen and Tosh have torches now, lighting the way. Gwen can still see spots from Jack’s light blast when she closes her eyes and this, combined with her throbbing head and the potential life-changing news David just dropped on her is making her feel like she needs to throw up. She blinks to try and clear her eyes and focuses on the steady slap of her feet on the tunnel floor, looking ahead to where the torch beams light their way out.

The fresh, mossy air she breathes in as they burst out of the tunnel entrance is a welcome relief. Night has fallen completely now, only a sickle moon sheds any light down on them.

‘Where are we?’ she asks.

‘Further down the valley, where the woods meet the foot of the next mountain,’ Tosh says. She hands Gwen and Ianto a gun each. ‘We had to park the SUV half a mile away.’

‘Yeah, sorry we were late,’ Owen says. ‘Did they get a glug of either of you?’

‘No, but he did _lick_ me,’ Ianto says, pouting.

‘Incoming!’ Jack’s voice echoes up the tunnel. The four of them form a semi-circle around the cave entrance, guns at the ready.

Jack races through, the battery on his lights now dead. Hot on his heels are David and four other vampires.

‘You can’t take us all,’ David snarls, ‘not with the strength we have now.’

‘Final warning,’ Jack says. ‘Anyone who surrenders, we’ll help, we’ll get you blood when you need it, and you can live a normal, non-kidnapping, nocturnal life. Anyone else, we’ll shoot.’

‘So we don’t ned to stake them or decapitate them?’ Owen asks, mildly interested.

‘That’s the beauty of the sanguinite,’ Jack says. ‘About as easy to kill as any regular old human.’

‘But so much stronger,’ David shouts, throwing himself at Jack, knocking him clean off his feet. The two roll down the hillside, tussling over Jack’s Webley.

Encouraged by David’s actions, his fellow vampires join the fray, throwing themselves full pelt at the Torchwood team. Gwen has the wind knocked out of her as a stocky teenager bowls into her, his shoulder ramming her ribs so they both fall to the ground.

He pushes himself up, pinning her down.

‘You can be strong like us,’ he says. ‘We can share our powers with you.’

‘Or you can let me go and I can show mercy,’ she says. ‘This doesn’t have to be it for you.’

He grips her shoulders hard and slams her into the ground.

‘And what are you going to do?’

A gun fires, the whipcrack of the gunpowder ricocheting around the hillsides. The bullet tears through the vampire teenager’s side and he collapses backwards, pressing a hand to the bleeding wound. Gwen looks round to see that Tosh is her saviour.

‘Thanks, Tosh,’ she says.

‘Two down,’ Tosh replies, offering a hand down to Gwen to help pull her up. Another gunshot and Ianto has taken out the rotund vampire that had been attempting to take him down.

Gwen turns around and sees a tall woman with an untamed mane of blonde curls advancing on Owen, backing him up against a tree.

‘You’re not going to like the taste of me, trust me,’ he tells her, flicking the safety on his gun off.

‘I’m open to trying new things,’ she says, still stepping towards him. She licks her lips.

‘Go on, give me a sniff.’

She grins, not needing encouragement, nuzzling into Owen’s neck. Gwen sets her sights on her, ready to step in if Owen’s goading backfires.

The vampire woman backs away spitting.

Owen raises his eyebrows. ‘That’s just what the nostravite thought too.’

He fires, his aim straight through her chest.

Gwen looks around at the four bodies, two of them still conscious and groaning. She crouches down over the teenager that had attacked her.

‘He promised us we could live forever,’ he says, and Gwen can suddenly see the boy he hadn’t yet grown out of, the shadow of the man he could have been fading away with his pain and fear.

‘We can still help you,’ she says, ‘but you can’t hurt and kill people just to make your own life longer. Is it really worth it?’

He clutches his side, blood trickling through his fingers.

‘Not if it’s like this,’ he says.

Owen joins Gwen, swinging his medical kit off his shoulder. He has splashes of the blood of the woman he shot across his jacket.

‘Let’s patch you up and see if there’s hope for you yet,’ he says.

At the bottom of the hill, Jack is still caught up with David, both throwing and taking punches, neither backing down. Jack’s Webley is nowhere in sight and they seem set on doing things the old-fashioned way.

David’s punches are hard and heavy, loaded with a weight that doesn’t match his wiry stature, but he is inexperienced. Jack is able to duck and use David’s strength and momentum against him, frustrating him even when he can’t quite land a punch of his own. He can’t take his eyes off the vampire long enough to scour the ground for his gun and use it to gain the upper hand.

‘Get off him,’ a low growl just behind Jack. Ianto.

David releases Jack and raises his arms in surrender. Jack turns around to see Ianto ready, feet apart in a shooting stance, his gun held out straight in front of him.

Panting, Jack gets to his feet. He wipes blood from his cut lip with the back of his hand.

‘Let’s talk, David. Let’s see if we can come to an arrangement again,’ he says.

David shakes, his body out of control, eyes wide and unfocused.

‘It’s not the same, Jack, I can’t go back, not now. I was so weak, I hid and I was pathetic. Let me go and I’ll go far away from here, I promise.’

Jack shakes his head. ‘Can’t let that happen. You’ve already killed two people and-,’

‘They were accidents! We’ve figured it out now, we can take just enough to keep ourselves strong and let people go again.’

‘So your plan is to continue kidnapping and maiming people but that’s fine because you won’t actually _kill_ them?’

‘They won’t remember!’

‘Yeah, and how’ve you managed that? Because we’ve got one victim who very much remembers what you did to him.’

‘You can blame Torchwood for that, it’s your formula. Remember who I was, Jack, before the sanguinite?’

Jack racks his brain but he can’t remember. He has a lot of people he has to work hard to remember and the finer details of old Torchwood cases can’t be afforded the head space.

‘A pharmacy student,’ Ianto answers for him, not budging his stance. ‘I read it earlier, it’s in your file.’

‘And you lot tried to Retcon me, remember, before you tried to find a way to help me? Only I saw that woman – Lucia – put it in my drink and I didn’t drink it. I studied it, found the formula. Pretended it didn’t work.’

‘You’ve got it all figured out then, you’ll move from place to place, kidnapping people, taking their blood, and retconning them?’ Jack says. ‘That’s your plan?’

‘You won’t even know it was me.’

‘We will. And we can’t let you do that. Either come with us and we’ll find a way to help you or that’s it for you. No more.’

‘No deal,’ David says, lunging at Ianto. He’s quick, but Ianto’s trigger finger is quicker and the shot passes through David’s eyeball. He slumps to the ground, still.

Jack looks down at the body.

‘We gave him all the chances we could,’ he says.

‘Maybe the sanguinite got too strong for him, maybe there wasn’t actually much of David left in there,’ Ianto suggests.

‘Maybe.’

He looks from the body to Ianto, taking in the blood and the wild hair.

‘You alright?’ he asks.

‘I wouldn’t say no to a good soak in the hotel’s hot tub,’ he says.

‘Count me in – but first, we have to tidy this mess up.’

*~*TW*~*

Once they’d seen what had happened to their fellow vampires who had chased Torchwood out of the cave, the others surrendered and agreed to work with Torchwood on a plan that could help them get what they needed without hurting people. Ianto was already working to find them a suitable shared accommodation where they could live by a night-time schedule and keep beakers of blood fresh in the fridge. They’d be closely monitored, and they’d all been warned by Jack that if he got even so much as hint that they were behind any missing people, their agreement would be cancelled and he would put a very final stop to them.

Gwen and Ianto had rested up at the hotel with the help of Owen’s special painkillers. Gwen swam in the pool while Ianto spent plenty of time in the hot tub and sauna, which Owen warned him about combining with the painkillers but gave up pretty quickly when he saw Ianto was intent on doing what he wanted. Instead, Owen kept himself busy making sure both Gwen and Ianto stayed hydrated and threatening to withhold the painkillers from them in future if they were just going to ignore his advice.

As they load up the SUV to leave, Gwen grabs Ianto and takes him to one side, out of earshot of the others.

‘What David said back in the cave, you haven’t told anyone, have you?’ she asks, looking back furtively at Jack.

‘It’s not for me to tell,’ Ianto says. ‘Do you know if-,’

‘It’s true? I don’t know yet, I need to take a test.’

‘Owen could-,’

‘Thanks, Ianto, but I think I need to do this the way everybody else does.’

Ianto nods. ‘Peeing on a stick. It’s a classic for a reason.’

Gwen scrubs her hands over her face. She’s so tired, she couldn’t sleep last night thinking of what David had said. She desperately wants to be sucked into one of Rhys’s bear hugs right now and have him tell her it’s all going to be okay. The thought of taking a pregnancy test with him by her side, both staring down at it and waiting for the result, brings butterflies to her stomach.

‘I don’t know how this is all going to work. What if he’s right? It’s not something I was planning for.’

‘Ah. A happy accident.’

Gwen doesn’t say anything. Ianto puts a hand on her shoulder and squeezes. She peers out from behind her fingers to look up at him. He’s back in his usual attire today, which is just the reassurance she needs.

‘It’ll be alright, Gwen. It might even be much better than that.’

She smiles, tongue between teeth. ‘Yeah, yeah, it will be. Thanks, Ianto.’

‘And I’ll save my congratulations for when I know they’re actually warranted.’

‘Oi, shirkers!’ Owen shouts over at them. ‘I’m not your bloody bag boy.’

With a synchronised roll of their eyes, Gwen and Ianto head back over to the SUV to pack up and go home.

**Author's Note:**

> Just an additional note, for anyone wondering - I've listened to a fair few of the Big Finish audios and really enjoyed them. However, my aim here is to progress things along from the TV canon (messy as it is) and kind of gloss over certain BF moments, hence the scene with Jack and Ianto at the start of this episode which would seem kind of unnecessary if the BF audio drama Serenity was part of their story. I couldn't resist a nod to The Last Beacon though ;)


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